Two Donkeys and a Fix-It-God

The missionary (I'll call him Randy) asked the mission conference attendees to pray. Randy needed the wisdom to solve a near-impossible problem. In one place where he serves, the team has to take a small boat up a river in the Amazon Rain Forest to get to a base camp, from where he launches a 20-hour hike into the jungle to train pastors who are ministering deep in the bush. The other alternative is to take a small airplane to land on the short grass runway at the base camp. I imagine the plane has to weave the trees and land just right to not crash at the end of the strip. He is looking for a way to get two donkeys to the base camp so they can use them to ease the burden of the 20-hour hike (and probably eat down the grass on the runway).

"Please pray for wisdom," Randy begged.

Now, if you're like most American Christians and me, you started thinking of ideas. Why not a helicopter? Or maybe you thought they could take baby donkeys on the canoe. One guy asked Randy if he'd thought about using four-wheelers or dirt bikes. In addition, people gave Randy the cash to buy eight more donkeys.

Because Randy and I were staying at the same hotel and I was his ride, I heard more of the story later. He asked us to pray, not solve the problem. Helicopters? Only if the military or drug dealers would help, and they won't. Four-wheelers won't fit on the trails, and there's the problem of transporting the necessary gasoline for dirt bikes. Baby donkeys? That might be an option, but there are concerns about the time commitment and the jaguars against defenseless babies. He may go with this option, but he's seeking God's direction before pulling the trigger. (He may need to get those eight extra donkeys if the jaguars have their way!) Randy and his team have thought of all these ideas and a few more, but they want God's help with the right answer.

Randy asked us to seek God's help in the problem, not be the fix-it-god ourselves. He knows God has all wisdom, and God has the best answer. Randy wants God's wisdom much more than ours. Maybe God will use one of us as a means to help Randy, but do you think he'll do it before we are even willing to pray?

I was thinking about solutions in my strength and power. Yeah, I thought about a helicopter. I hadn't prayed but was off to the races with ideas. And I'm sad to say; I thought I was the first to think of a helicopter. I was proudly patting myself on the back for my grand wisdom. If the 500 other people thought of it before Randy was even off the stage, why would any of us believe Randy hadn't thought of it?

Why are we so quick to try to solve problems for God before we even talk to God about the situation?

The next time someone asks you to pray, resist the temptation to fix the problem first. Make prayer--the thing you were asked to do in the first place--your chief priority. If God determines to use you in the solution, excellent!, but God will get the glory for it when we start with prayer. And that's how it should be.